晚古生代冈瓦纳的演化长逾13500km的基墨利超级地体的裂离及其向亚洲的漂移

TheCimmerianterraneformsanalmostunbrokenchainstretching>13,500km,fromcentralsouthernEuropetowesternIndonesia,viaSEEurope,theMiddleEast,Afghanistan,Tibet,SWChinaandMyanmar.Ar-guably,itisEarth’smostspectacularexampleofa“sliver”terrane,dwarfinginsizemorerecentlydevel-opedexamples,forinstancethePalawanBlockinthewesternPhilippines,andtheLordHoweRiseintheTasmanSea.Thepresentationwillfirstoutlinethein-triguinggeologicalfeaturesassociatedwiththisuniquetectonicentity.Followingthat,recentlyobtainedresultsfollowingpaleomagneticinvestigationsoftwolowerPermianrift-relatedbasaltsuiteswillbesummarized(AborVolcanicsinnortheasternIndiaandWoniusiBa-saltsinYunnan,China).Thetwostudiesarepartofalargerprogrammeofongoingresearchaimedatdeducing(I)thegeodynamicconfigurationthatgeneratedtheun-usualriftingsystem,and(II)exactlyhowCimmeriafit-tedagainstGondwanapriortoitsdispersalintheEarlyPermian.ThecriticalunitisBaoshan,whichwefitagainstGondwanawithinanarrowlongitudinalbeltclosetowherenorthernIndiaandnorthwesternAustraliawereonceincloseproximity(Fig.1).Furthermore,wesuggestthatSibumasulaytodirectlytheeast,offshoreofAustralia;QiangtangandLhasaalmostcertainlysattothewest(offnorthernGreaterIndia-SEArabia),butweareuncertainastotheirexactconfiguration.Ourfindingswillbecomparedwithseveralratherdifferentmodelsthathavebeenpublishedinrecentyears.Thenewpa-leomagneticconstrainthighlightstheflexibilityauthorscurrentlyhaveinreconstructingtheregion,principallybecauseoftheoveralllackofsimilarhigh-qualitydatafromthevariousblocks.Weexplainhownewdatacouldresolvetheseambiguities,therebyofferingmorerobustexplanationsforeasternGondwana’slatePaleozoicde-velopment.